Smallest airport ever. This is the security AND both gates in the same room (scroll right because its Panoramic)
Landing in the city of Doha, in Qatar, a little peninsula jutting into the Persian Gulf (google maps it), we entered into the nicest airport we have ever been to. Our layover was like 10 hours so we explored and ended up chilling at a cafe working on some stuff and then doing a little workout in the airport before we were soon on a plane and landing in Hong Kong. James’ and Randi live in the Lime green building, a cool place in Northpoint, a bit out of the hustle bustle of the big downtown, but only a few metro stops from it. From the airport, we taxied on over to the Lime Habitat. It was so cool to see James again and I’ve been lucky because in just the last couple of years this is actually the third time. Candace gets along well with Randi, who is great and cool, and so it makes for a good time when we all get together. James showed us his view from the balcony on the 32nd floor where he lives, which was a spectacular vista of Hong Kong and its skyscrapers, even at night. We caught up some, had a little chit chat, and then called it a night.
Candace doing to workout thang
Hong Kong, landing around 10pm, we thought it best to grab some food. Candace, you can see, is proudly strutting her ring from Dubrovnik still =)
Here is what we ordered - haha
View from James' place during the day
The next morning Randi went off to work and James, Candace and I headed out to the history museum to see the evolution of history over thousands of years in China. Starting with cave men, to ending with today, it was interesting to walk through, and at a few points enlightening on subjects like how to grow rice and the various traditions and festivals they had and have. Also learning about the British takeover and the Opium war was interesting. We also had a chance to see what Hong Kong used to look like before all the animals became extinct and the city became “cement”.
People used to climb to these to grab the food all along it. A tradition at festival
Marriage processional
After the museum James showed us some legit Ramen, like nothing we had ever had before. It was on a whole different level, kind of like eating a $70 steak at a fine steak house compared to one at Outback Steakhouse, except without the price tag.
James took us shopping and Candace was amazed at all the high-end names that she was seeing. Some stores she had never seen in person before like Diane Von Furstenburg, Fendi, Vivian Westwood, and Coco Chanel’s complete store with clothing. James said that a lot of the money comes in from mainland China and they come to shop in Hong Kong, because there are a lot of things that they can’t get in China. We headed home and James showed me Hearthstone, a fun card game he’s been into.
We woke up Saturday to Randi baking some deliciousness. We all had breakfast and decided to walk around and check out Hong Kong a bit while shopping along the way and scoping out interesting places. The weather wasn’t the best but we made the most of it. We saw some themed streets: a reptile lane, dog lane, different markets, and small width-wise alleys with vendors on each side yelling out in Chinese. We ended up having a cool dinner at a favorite dim sum restaurant of theirs then headed to see the new Mission Impossible movie. Getting back around 10pm, we got ready and headed out at around midnight to go out on the town on a Saturday Night in Hong Kong. James took us to the happening sector and we were soon grooving to the underground electronic music scene. The first place we went to was pretty cool. Small and with a friend of James DJing we had fun there for a while until a newer DJ spun got up who was super drunk and ended up being terrible and basically clearing the place out. Heading to a couple of other places, we ended the night late, back at the apartment playing Hearthstone and having sunset chats on the balcony.
Dessert at Dim sum
Candace acquiring her first Diane Von Faus. piece -
Late night on the streets of HK
Sunday I had some sort of food poisoning or bacteria from a drink or rendition on that because my stomach hurt like crazy every 10 seconds and I couldn’t eat or drink anything for the next 40 hours. We chilled at home watching Nathan for You, some movies, and played some games. The ladies went out to shop and James and I just hung out and relaxed. He got a 10 km run in and by the time the ladies got back and cooked dinner it was 11pm, and we decided to call it.
Monday I decided to go do something regardless of how I felt so James, once back from his 6am Jujitsu class, took me out for a couple hour hike taking us up the “Dragons hike”, high above Hong Kong and overlooking part of the Skyscraper spread as well as the ocean, island and beaches. We were hiking through the forest and had beautiful vistas here and there that poked through as we crested a hill or the trees parted for a moment, The hike also had interesting bugs, some unfamiliar foliage and I was able to keep down a bottle of water which was a good sign. After about 2 or 3 hours we ended up on a beach where we were able to cool off for a bit before heading home. For some reason a Mexican food craving hit me as I actually felt a little hungry so we found a place with decent reviews and soon were devouring burritos in China. It was the first food I had eaten in 40 hours besides a slice of part of a carrot and 2 crackers. After getting back home we watched an excellent movie, Whiplash, that James introduced to us and called it an evening, as James had to work Tuesday morning.
Burrito - it was actually decent, considering we were all the way in Hong Kong!
With Randi and James both back at work, Candace and I went out on a journey ourselves to explore some of the other cool things of Hong Kong. We set off to see the “Big Buddha” first. Taking the Metro to its final resting place, we walked 5 minutes over to a Gondola and bought tickets for the “Crystal Cabin” gondola, effectively skipping most of the main line and getting a clear-bottom gondola, rather than metal bottom, so that we would be able to see through as we ascended up towards the Buddha for only a few bucks more. It was beautiful. I’m not sure what was more cool, the gondola ride up and down or the Buddha itself but it was great to soak it all in, plop an audio tour on for some perspective and enjoy the natural breeze as the wind flowed through the unique gondola design to naturally cool it as we rose up in elevation. We floated over the harbor, into the mountains, over streams, up and up until the Big Buddha came into view. Touching down, we entered into a little Buddha village of sorts. There were shops, a short film on the origins of Buddhism, dance performances along the street, restaurants, and other things to do. We made it to the foot of the steps leading up to the Buddha and started our climb. The view from the top was fantastic, like something out of a postcard. I actually thought that the Buddha was more impressive to me from the base of the stairs than up close, being that you couldn’t really see the whole thing when up close anyways because of its size. We walked all the way around it and then entered inside of the thing and explored, climbing up through the many rooms and checking it all out.
Big Buddha in background. Wind in Candace's hair in foreground.
Panoramic, Gondola Ride
Interesting Spider
Incense
Ginormous incense. Big prayer!
Sign of The Boar -
Sign of the Rooster or cock
Heading back to the city for some special dinner, we stopped off at the tallest building in Hong Kong, the Commerce Center. Owned by same people who own the Finance Center Building across the channel, these two giants are impressive and the tallest buildings in Hong Kong, third in all of China and 5th in the world at a height of 1,588’. We entered into the fastest elevator rid of our lives going up and up 100 floors and 310 meters high in 60 seconds. With great views all around, we walked in a circle around the upper floor gazing out at the head-to toe glass walls. Charts along the windows explained and pointed out the names of the various buildings that we were looking out upon. We got some panoramic shots, soaked in the sunset, and finally headed down to make dinner in time. Dinner was a urban Health Pop-Up Kitchen concept, rated #1 on Trip Advisor in Hong Kong that Candace had found and contacted day 1, upon arrival in the city. Fully booked 5 nights out, we got it in on our last night and were lucky to get reservations. We had dinner with 4 other people in the chef’s home as he prepared an authentic soup and 3 main dishes that fulfilled Candace’s dietary restrictions and tasted great. After dinner, we headed up for some rooftop air, conversation, and a a pineapple dessert. We shortly attempted to make a boat ride in the harbor but must have been at the wrong set of piers for the boat times because none came and we ended up just taking a nice walk along the pier, checking out a weird carnival for a few, and getting some pics of the huge ferris wheel that was all lit up. Back at the apartment we packed and were ready for our early flight to Tokyo, Japan!
Panoramic from top of Hong Kong Commerce Center
One last view from James' apartment
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